The Background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
An electrically-powered intake air heater is useful for heating air as it enters the intake of an associated internal combustion engine. Depending on the thermal conditions of the engine and the ambient air, it may be desirable to heat the intake air prior to attempting to start the engine. In some applications the intake air is heated for a predetermined time that is based on the ambient air temperature.
The intake air heater can be turned on and off by a relay or transistor switch that is included in, or controlled by, a heater control module. State of the art heater control module circuits are undesirably limited in their ability to reliably control power to high-power, e.g. greater than 1.5 KW, air heaters.